College Professor Named Least Stressful Job

College professors may take issue with their profession being ranked the most stress-free of 2013. They may not agree with media that describe their field as relaxed, teaching a couple classes a week in a beautiful setting, hosting dinner parties for fellow intellectuals and publishing the occasional article. But CareerCast.com, which published the annual list of least and most stressful jobs, is sticking by its valuation.

“If you look at the list, the key that you see there is these are jobs where people are in control of their day – working as fast as they feel they need to be effective,” Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com, told the Huffington Post. “You don’t have somebody kind of breathing over your shoulder. There’s no physical risk at all, and no one is depending on you in your job to make their life expectancy last longer.“

According to CareerCast.com, the amount of stress a worker experiences can be predicted by looking at specific demands inherent to the job. It uses a ranking system that considers 11 job demands that can be expected to evoke stress, and assigns each demand a point value. The criteria measured include: Amount of travel, growth potential, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, physical demands, environmental conditions, hazards encountered, own life at risk, life of another at risk, and meeting the public.

Based on its methodology, CareerCast.com ranked college professor as the least stressful job, beating out seamstress only because of salary differences. After a large Twitter response from university professors, Forbes published a reactionary article explaining the various stressors involved with university professorship. For example, performance and advancement are greatly based upon peer review; and in some areas universities do not pay a professors’ full salary and it must instead be raised through research grants.